Legislators in South Carolina are currently debating a bill (H. 4624) that would forbid medically necessary care for transgender people under the age of 18 during the first week of legislative action in 2024.
If passed into law, this ideologically motivated attack would hurt South Carolina children and go against the advice of health professionals. Military families with trans children who are assigned to one of our country’s military installations face a risk as well.
This is becoming a concern for military members and their families more and more because of the patchwork of discriminatory laws against LGBTQ children and adults. Anti-trans policy is turning into a national security concern, as The Nation noted last year.
Now on the website, we have a brief interview with South Carolina-born combat veteran Alleria Stanley, who retired from the U.S. military after 20 years of active duty. Alleria, a transgender woman and mother of five, works as the SPARTA military campaigning organization’s advocacy director.
What’s your connection to South Carolina?
Funny enough, Nikki [Haley] is from Bamberg, South Carolina, so if that town sounds familiar to you, it’s because I was born and raised there. Nikki used to attend my holiday celebrations.
No way! A small state
We’re certainly in contact at this time. However, I recall growing up with her family and going shopping at her mother’s shop. I also recall Ajit and Simi, the entire family. I’m Nikki’s age, and we attended the same school growing up. She’d probably be shocked by how I appear right now.
You monitor the status of transgender people and trans children across the nation from where you are right now. What impact has the storm of anti-transgender policy across the United States had on military families, particularly those who have trans children?
It is incredibly horrible, heartbreaking, underreported, and essentially unheard of. We laud and exalt our service members in this nation, but we’re willing to seriously harm some of those individuals.
If you are deployed to a combat zone, we anticipate home divorces. We anticipate that home splits will take place in places like Korea, Bahrain, Qatar, and Africa. That’s anticipated. What is not anticipated is when a home is forced to relocate to an area with enmity with its citizens, where doing so could have major repercussions…
Families are therefore given the option of leaving the service if at all possible, rejecting the assignment and leaving right away to end your career, regardless of how many years you have invested in it and how much you enjoy and triumphantly function. You have the option to separate, and we have some people who have done so and are now living off, not because their service member is abroad but rather because they are in Florida, Texas, Kansas, or Missouri, in these states. And in many of the states that are enacting these laws, the military predominates.
What does a family do if they are relocated to an area where getting medical care is against the law? What options actually exist for them?
Telehealth, in my opinion, was one of the real advantages of COVID. As a result, there are occasionally healthcare providers who are willing to perform lab work and write prescriptions.
However, a lot of the services are terrified. We have a lot of providers leaving the care industry because they don’t want to deal with the legal costs, potential legal issues, and higher insurance rates, which further reduces the pool.
Therefore, if you’re sent to a state that alters its laws or to one that is hostile to you, we frequently receive requests for assistance. Insert state here. What should we do? And that’s where the peer support system comes in handy. People may suggest a process or doctor who is willing to assist, and it is completely branch-specific. Your actions are subject to the rules and restrictions of your branch. To make matters worse, there isn’t a single cohesive system, so Installation-Service Roulette is very much the case.
How do you see biased legislation affecting the toughness and readiness of the army from your perspective as someone who communicates with a lot of military leaders and service members?
Diversity is our strength and it gives us more options, and we consistently demonstrate this throughout our force. It erodes us from within. These laws limit those who are willing to serve and degrade that diversity. Surprisingly, trans people serve at a rate that is roughly twice as high as that of other populations and identities. This actually happened while there was a ban. Trans people have served in the military since the Revolutionary War’s inception, and they have received high honors for it.
Why would you shoot yourself in the foot? We currently have problems with recruiting and retention, and because of who they are, high-caliber, well-trained people are under too much pressure and stress in their military careers. Alas, this stress is causing some of our service members to make horrible decisions. Over 50 people lost their lives to suicide during the ban. People have committed suicide in the past year, 2023, solely as a result of ban threats…
That weakens unit unity, effectiveness, and strength in general. Our focus should be solely concerned with making sure we defend America to the best of our ability because it takes away from our main military readiness.
